September 1, 2026
CORNING, NY — This fall, The Rockwell Museum presents two special exhibitions that offer fresh perspectives on American art, history, and identity. Presented during the Museum’s 50th anniversary celebration and in recognition of the nation’s 250th anniversary, Art at Work: Reframing Artists of the WPA and Rockwell Reframed: Director’s Choice invite visitors to reconsider familiar stories, discover new connections, and explore how artists have responded to the evolving American experience over time.
“At this milestone moment for the Museum and the nation, these exhibitions invite us to reflect on the many ways art has defined and responded to who we are as a country,” said Erin M. Coe, Executive Director of The Rockwell Museum. “From artists who documented the resilience and aspirations of everyday Americans during the New Deal era to works that encourage new ways of seeing the world around us, both exhibitions underscore the power of art to connect us across generations. This is a remarkable moment for The Rockwell Museum, and we encourage visitors to join us in reframing the American story.”
Opening September 5, 2026, and continuing through January 19, 2027, Art at Work: Reframing Artists of the WPA revisits one of the most ambitious chapters in the history of American art: the government’s employment of artists during the Great Depression. Focusing on artists associated with the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration, the exhibition explores how they documented the lives, labor, and communities of the United States during a period of economic hardship and social transformation.
Art at Work moves beyond the more familiar public mural work of the WPA to focus on 29 prints and paintings that brought everyday life to a broad public. Themes of labor, community, resilience, and social change reveal the remarkable range of artistic responses to the 1930s and early 1940s, inviting reflection on the role of artists and art in civic life.
Drawn from The Rockwell Museum’s collection alongside significant loans from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell, Westmoreland Museum of American Art, The Hyde Collection, and the O’Brien Art Foundation, the exhibition features works by 29 artists, including Thomas Hart Benton, Philip Evergood, William Gropper, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Elizabeth Olds, Reginald Marsh, and Dox Thrash, among others. The exhibition is organized by The Rockwell Museum and curated by Katherine Banerjee, Associate Curator, Amanda Lett, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, and Erin Coe.
On view August 29, 2026, through January 4, 2027, Rockwell Reframed: Director’s Choice offers a more personal perspective on the Museum’s growing collection. Executive Director Erin Coe brings together 25 works of art that have resonated with her over two decades as a curator and museum leader.
Organized into eight thematic groupings, and featuring work by Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Arthur Dove, John Marin, Betye Saar, Whitfield Lovell, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, John Steurt Curry, and Samuel Levi Jones, the exhibition explores subjects ranging from artistic experimentation and sense of place to memory and identity. The exhibition also introduces visitors to important recent acquisitions, including Eastman Johnson’s Study from Life: Down East, the first historic genre painting to enter the collection, and Grafton Tyler Brown’s Grand Canyon and Falls from Hayden Point, Yellowstone, which expands the Museum’s representation of nineteenth-century American landscape painting. The theme “New Horizons” looks ahead, featuring three works by Eliza Pratt Greatorex that anticipate a major forthcoming exhibition devoted to the pioneering nineteenth century artist. Together, these groupings demonstrate how museum collections are in a continual state of evolution as new works of art, new scholarship, and new perspectives expand access and storytelling.
Alongside Director’s Choice, the Museum invites visitors to step into the role of curator and build their own exhibition in Reframe/Re-Arrange. Using reproductions of works of art from the Museum’s collection—alongside reproductions of works on loan from the Art Bridges Foundation, visitors are invited to choose, place, and pair artworks in ways that feel meaningful to them.
A community response wall will encourage reflection and will invite visitors to share perspectives shaped by 50 years of community connection. Made possible with support from Art Bridges, this immersive, hands-on gallery experience celebrates the Museum’s 50th anniversary, transforming the act of looking into a playful and meaningful engagement with visual art.
Together, the fall exhibitions embody the Museum’s 50th-anniversary theme, Rockwell Reframed, which celebrates The Rockwell Museum’s legacy as a destination for art and community since 1976 while looking boldly toward the future.
Exhibition Information
Rockwell Reframed: Director’s Choice
August 29, 2026–January 4, 2027
Special Projects Gallery, Floor 2
Art at Work: Reframing Artists of the WPA
September 5, 2026–January 19, 2027
Spotlight Gallery, Floor 1M
Reframe/Re-Arrange
September 5, 2026 – January 3, 2027
Student Gallery, Floor 2
About The Rockwell Museum
The Rockwell Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate, provokes curiosity, engagement and reflection about art and the American experience.
Founded in 1976, the Museum’s collection numbers nearly 3,000 objects and includes strengths in contemporary and historic Native American art, 19th-century landscape paintings, traditional bronze sculptures and a growing collection of modern and contemporary art. Housed in Corning’s former historic City Hall, The Rockwell is an active cultural hub and a unique place where locals and travelers alike connect with art and ideas through a dynamic roster of exhibitions, programs and events. The Museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
The Rockwell Museum (111 Cedar Street) is open every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Museum’s campus includes the KIDS ROCKWELL Art Lab, featuring family-friendly activities, games and hands-on projects connected to exciting special exhibitions and the Museum’s collection of American artworks. The Art Lab is located around the corner at 36 E. Market Street and is open Thursday through Monday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the fall/winter season. One ticket provides access to both Rockwell locations.
Media Contact: Willa Vogel ▪ 607-438-0321 ▪ vogelw@rockwellmuseum.org
Press Approved Images: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/q2zhthsnorcaipm0hzyco/AM-KNUhhE4Eo0ZEZn8ueOCM?rlkey=9go8q0s65ycnb7p4ewolsutd6&st=ie9p266e&dl=0